Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gun Ban Case

October 1, 2009 on 7:17 am | In Freedom, Fundamental Transformation, Second Amendment | No Comments

If there was good news today, Wednesday, September 30, 2009, this was it.  The Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the city of Chicago’s ban on hand guns.  The case may result in an historic ruling on Second Amendment rights. The argument being led by attorney Alan Gura is whether or not the Second Amendment protects people not just from the federal government but also from their state and local politicians. There are two questions here.

1. Do state and local politicians have to respect the 2^nd Amendment?
2. Will state and local gun laws be enforceable?

Alan Gura has already successfully argued a similar case in Washington, D.C. earlier this year.  In the case of the District of Columbia vs. Heller, the court ruled 5-4 to strike down a ban on handguns. The court ruling protected an individual’s rights to have a gun at home for self-defense.  Gura’s goal with the case of McDonald vs. Chicago is have the Supreme Court agree that states cannot impose laws against the people that are protected by the Constitution. 

THINK:  The original intent of the Bill of Rights was the promise to protect an American’s Federal Rights and not allow States to pass laws infringing on these rights. The Fourteenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights includes the phrase “…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…” The 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms is a right set forth in the Bill of Rights; therefore, a state cannot ban, seize or take guns away from citizens.

Otis McDonald, the plaintiff in the case against Chicago believes the current laws stand only ot protect he criminals. “We worked all our lives, paid taxes, did the right thing in life and here we are vulnerable to somebody who never went to school, is never going to go to school, and is living off of what they can get out of us — that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

The issues set forth in the case of McDonald vs. Chicago are these:

•  Chicago requires all guns to be registered – a minimum 90 day process
• Handguns cannot be registered – this is a ban on handguns
• Annual taxes are imposed on a citizen’s right to keep other types of guns
• Miss the renewal of your registration and there are huge penalties
• Guns become unregisterable – you cannot have it and no one else can have it
• You may reregister the exact type of gun, but not the one you already own
• The old gun must be “thrown out”

The Chicago Police have weighed in on today’s news. Mark Donohue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police said, “The logic they are using, that homeowners’ homes will not get burglarized, is ridiculous. You usually do not burglarize a home that is occupied.”

THINK: A property owner doesn’t need a gun to protect themselves and their family because the chances a burglary occurring while they are home is not likely? How likely is it for a criminal to choose to burglarize a home that may have a gun in it?

A statistic from Chicago police:  Of the 511 murders that happened in Chicago last year, 402 happened outdoors and the vast majority involved one gang member shooting another gang member, according to police statistics.

THINK:  Surely the shooters had the proper registrations for their fire arms.

The results of McDonald vs. Chicago will have an effect on New York, too. If the Second Amendment applies to New York City, then they cannot have the laws that are currently on the books.  The average time and money expenditure to register to buy a gun in New York is one year’s time and $1000. This does not even include buying the gun. This is only to register for the privilege of making that purchase!

The local government may regulate gun ownership, but they may not:

• Harass gun owners
• Make gun ownership difficult
• Make gun ownership expensive
• Make gun ownership a bureaucratic nightmare

Alan Gura says he is very confident when everything is said and done, one year from now Chicago will no longer have a handgun ban. It is good the he has such confidence.

 President Obama’s pick for Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor has already demonstrated her opinion on this issue.  In January 2009, Justice Sotomayor ruled that states do not have to obey the Second Amendment’s commandment that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. In Maloney v. Cuomo, Sotomayor signed an opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that said the Second Amendment does not protect individuals from having their right to keep and bear arms restricted by state governments. Sotomayor’s decision rejected the Fourteenth Amendment’s incorporation doctrine as far as Second Amendment was concerned, saying any legislation that could provide a “conceivable” reason would be upheld by her court.  

“We will uphold legislation if we can identify some reasonably conceived state of facts that could provide a rational basis for the legislative action. Legislative acts that do not interfere with fundamental rights … carry with them a strong presumption of constitutionality,” the appeals court concluded. “The Fourteenth Amendment,” she wrote, “provides no relief.”

THINK: An armed populace is a populace that will not be pushed around. 

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Cloture Vote Leads to Confirmation of Regulatory Czar, Cass Sunstein

September 13, 2009 on 2:01 pm | In Economic Policies, Freedom, Fundamental Transformation, Presidential Czars, Second Amendment, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

On Thursday, September 10, 2009, while Americans were discussing President Obama’s healthcare speech from the night before, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Cass Sunstein as the new Regulatory Czar. This “up or down” vote came the day after the Senate voted to invoke cloture for the confirmation of this very dangerous man. Do you know who Cass Sunstein is? Do you know what cloture in the U.S. Senate means? Do you think it doesn’t matter; you can’t do anything about it anyway?  Well, it DOES matter! Arming yourself with the information matters! I’m going to breakdown exactly what happened and why this very serious confirmation that took place right under the noses of the American people matters!

To understand the severity of this action, you need to understand the answers to the following questions:

•  What is cloture?
• Who is Cass Sunstein?
• What kind of power does Cass Sunstein have?
• Why does this matter to me?

Here is the breakdown: 

WHAT IS CLOTURE?

The definition of cloture is this:  the closing or limitation of debate in a legislative body especially by calling for a vote [1]  The Senate requires a minimum of 60 votes to invoke cloture. Once cloture has been invoked, debate over the issue is [extremely] limited and the Senate then calls an “up or down” vote to pass the issue. [2]

THINK:  Senate votes to stop debate on a very controversial man who will have the power to regulate our country into the FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION that President Obama has promised will take place. The U.S. Senate made the arrogant decision to eliminate the opportunity for Americans to learn exactly who this man is! They closed the debate so that the truth as to who this man is and what he believes would not be exposed prior to his confirmation.

WHO IS Regulatory Czar CASSS SUNSTEIN?

• One of Barack Obama’s closest ideological academic friends and intellectual “soul mate” to the president. (Obama: “Cass is not only a valued advisor, he is a dear friend”)
• Taught with President Obama at the University of Chicago Law School
• Harvard Law School professor; prior to that, was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago Law School (1981-2008)
• Academic specialties: constitutional law, administrative law, and regulatory policy

WHAT DOES CASS SUNSTEIN BELIEVE?

On the issue of the 2^nd Amendment: Cass Sunstein believes that the right to bear arms is not an individual right, but a Federal right.  In his book, “Radicals in Robes”(p.220) , Sunstein writes,  “[A]lmost all gun control legislation is constitutionally fine. And if the Court is right, then fundamentalism does not justify the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. ”

THINK: He is saying that gun control laws are fine. The Constitution (fundamentalism) does not protect an individual’s right to bear arms.

Cass Sunstein also believes that hunting should be banned. In a speech he made at Harvard University in 2007, Cass Sunstein made the statement that, “[Humans’] willingness to subject animals to unjustified suffering will be seen … as a form of unconscionable barbarity… morally akin to slavery and the mass extermination of human beings.”  

THINK: Hunting is comparable to slavery and mass extermination of humans?

From here, you have to look at Sunstein’s views on animal rights: He has extremely radical views on the rights of animals. In 2004, Susntein wrote “Animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives …”[3] In Sunstein’s opinion, animals should have the right to sue humans. He has also written that he would like to establish legal rights for livestock, wildlife and pets. Just when you start to think this can’t get any more ridiculous, Cass Sunstein also has said that animals should have a right to property, too!

 THINK: This new Regulatory Czar will also serve to remove your right to own a pet. He will stifle the progress of medicine (among other things) and limit the food products that are derived from animals. This is evidenced by his writings in “The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer” (Aug. 2002). The exact wording is this: “[T]here should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, in scientific experiments, and in agriculture.”

Cass Sunstein’s view of the 1st Amendment is made clear by statements he made in his internet book Republic.com 2.0 (p. 137). Here, Sunstein writes “A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government.”  He has said that he wants to balance the internet through a legislative (laws) effort that would regulate broadcasting in the interest of Democratic Principles. 

THINK: If Cass Sunstein, or some other government representative, does not like what a person is saying over the airwaves or on the internet, they will be regulated into silence. The 1^st Amendment guarantees the right to free speech. By silencing any dissent (1st amendment rights regulated) you will not even be aware of what is happening! The very people who are attempting to spread the word of TRUTH will be silenced by this administration.

On taxes, Sunstein has told his readers they are selfish for opposing the size, scope, expansion and skyrocketing expense of the government. In his own words: “In what sense in the money in our pockets and bank accounts are fully ours. Did we earn it by our autonomous efforts? Could we have inherited it without the assistance of probate courts? Do we save it without the sport of bank regulators? Could we spend it if there were no public officials to coordinate the efforts and pool the resources of the community in which we live. Without taxes there is no liberty.” [4]

THINK: Cass Sunstein is telling you that he believes that without the government, you are nothing. Without the government, you would have no place to work to earn money. No bank to store your money and no community in which to live. This is a socialist/Marxist theory.

Cass Sunstein believes the United States should adopt a Second Bill of Rights. He wrote in 2004, “In a nutshell, the New Deal helped vindicate a simple idea. No one really opposes government intervention. Even the people who most loudly denounce government interference depend on it every day.” [5]

THINK:  The Founding Fathers gave no thought (for better or worse) to including social and economic guarantees in the Bill of Rights. As an American, you have the” Right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” There has never been a guarantee of equal results. For the government to change the founding documents to include equal social and economic rights for all citizens is to FUNDAMENTALY TRANSFORM the United States of America! This will take our great country from a free republic to a socialist (at best) state!

HOW DOES CASS SUNSTEIN IMPLEMENT HIS VIEWS?

Cass Sunstein will not change laws. He will serve to make EVERYHTNG more difficult.

Start with gun control.  He won’t offer laws to eliminate individual gun ownership. He will implement “regulations” that will make obtaining and keeping a gun next to impossible. To understand this, look at the state of New York. It is not illegal to own a gun there, but just TRY to get one!

Look at his views on animal rights. He believes animal rights are equal to humans. He won’t pass a law to ban meat; he will work with the environmental agencies to ensure that feed is harder to obtain and grazing land will be further protected. This will make feeding livestock next to impossible. There is an example of this type of regulation in California. An environmentalist group sought to save the smelt. Water to grazing land was reduced and animals did not survive.

THINK: Ranchers have been put out of business. Livestock products (meat, dairy, etc) are forced into limited supply. Limited supply drives up the cost of the available products.

Cass Sunstein will regulate animals’ rights to the point that if you have a rat in your house, you won’t be able to get rid of it because it has the “right” to live there. The rat will now own property – your home!

Cass Sunstein has said he wants to make laws that will require broadcasters and internet sites to include information the government deems necessary.

THINK: If an [American citizen] individual speaks or writes something that is not in line with the government, they will be required to include the state sponsored propaganda in their talks or writings.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER TO ME?

This matters to you because President Obama has promised to FUNDAMENTALY TRANSFORM this country! Cass Sunstein will aid in the transformation by regulating every aspect of Americans’ lives! The goal is to overwhelm the system and intentionally force it to collapse.

Cass Sunstein clearly describes the process by which he will FUNDAMENTALY TRANSOFRM America in his book “NUDGE”. In the book, Sunstein talks about little “nudges” that eventually effect the change that is the ultimate goal.

  [1]http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloture

 [2]http://www.senate.gov/reference/glossary_term/cloture.htm

[3] – 2004 book Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions  p. 252

 [4] “Why We Should Celebrate Paying Taxes,” The Chicago Tribune, April 14, 1999

 [5] The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need it More Than Ever, Basic Books, New York, 2004, p. 19

 1st Amendment Text:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 2nd Amendment Text:  A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

 More on Cass Sunstein’s opinions: http://stopsunstein.com/media/pdf/Sunstein%20quote%20file.pdf

The Congressional Plan to Disarm Americans

August 31, 2009 on 5:31 am | In Freedom, Second Amendment | No Comments